Report Explores Options For Uninsured Oklahomans
Leavitt or leave it: Health care consultants recommend ways for Oklahoma to cover more uninsured residents
By Jaclyn Cosgrove Published: June 27, 2013
Oklahoma’s Republican leadership has repeatedly voiced that the state will not expand its Medicaid program, a key provision of the Affordable Care Act.
Health care experts Thursday recommended that the state take millions of dollars it would have received for Medicaid expansion and use the funds to expand Insure Oklahoma, an established health care program.
“This approach is using the enhanced federal funds, but we believe it is beneficial to Oklahoma because it does it in a way that allows Oklahoma to target and develop a program to meet the specific needs of its population, as well as the objectives of the state,” said Laura Summers, director of state intelligence at Leavitt Partners.
Whether the federal government would approve such a plan is yet to be determined.
The Insure Oklahoma program uses Medicaid and Oklahoma tobacco tax money to help about 30,000 people buy private insurance, but the federal government has denied a waiver that would allow the program to operate. The Insure Oklahoma program is set to expire Dec. 31.